China

The National Congress commences

Age before beauty

THE MONTHS LEADING leading up to today’s opening of the Chinese Communist Party’s 18th National Congress have been filled with uncertainty, anticipation and suspense. Moreover, at November 8th, this year’s Congress arrived at an unusually late date.

But the 2,270 delegates who gathered for the meeting in Beijing’s imposing Great Hall of the People were asked to wait just one moment-of-silence longer before getting down to business. This was so that heads might be bowed and respects paid to some dear, departed Communist leaders of the past. These included Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping. Verily, they are gone but not forgotten.

The opening session of the Congress highlighted another important fact about elite-level Chinese politics and those past leaders who are still alive and kicking. They have not been forgotten either, and indeed they are not really even gone. Appearing at the dais with the outgoing party chief, Hu Jintao, the incoming chief, Xi Jinping, and other top leaders of the present tense, was an all-star cast of political characters from decades past.

To this old baseball fan, it felt a lot like watching Old Timer’s Day at Yankee Stadium. Mr Hu’s predecessor, Jiang Zemin, was there occupying a centre seat of honour. Nearby was a former premier, Zhu Rongji, a former vice-president, Zeng Qinghong, as well as such old heavy hitters as Li Ruihuan, Li Lanqing and Deng Xiaoping’s son, Deng Pufang.

Attending also—in a Mao suit—was the 95-year-old Song Ping, a revolutionary leader who left the Politburo Standing Committee in 1992 but spent his Thursday morning following along with the printed text as Mr Hu delivered his swan-song speech. Mr Song would have been hearing very little that was new to his ears.

Speaking for more than 90 minutes, Mr Hu laid out a familiar account of the challenges facing China, and of the party’s plans for addressing them. He spoke especially sharply about the danger of corruption, warning that it could cause the collapse of the party and the fall of the state. But this was not new either. It was already old hat more than 12 years ago, when both Mr Jiang and Mr Zhu were prone to speak in equally apocalyptic terms about corruption.

Perhaps to liven things up, Mr Hu added some applause lines about China’s resolute determination to assert its maritime interests. This Congress comes at a time when the country is embroiled in multiple maritime disputes with its neighbours.

Meanwhile, with the homage paid to Mao’s cohort and the presence of all those elders, the party’s leaders sought to send two distinct but related messages. The first was that, despite the breathtaking changes that have taken place in Chinese society and economic life, and its sharp turn away from Maoism, collectivism and state-planned orthodoxy, the party wants to be able to assert a degree of continuity with the nation’s founding principles. To do this, Mr Hu’s speech traced a web of convoluted lines that wound back from his own theoretical musings about “Scientific Development” to Mr Jiang’s version of the same (about something called “the Three Represents”; don’t ask). From there the thread runs further back still, through Deng Xiaoping Theory to Mao Zedong Thought, and then all the way to Lenin and Marx. So there you have it: dizzying policy reversals notwithstanding, the party offers consistency, continuity and stability.

At a time when political scandals and signs of high-level infighting have been plain for all to see, the presence of the elders was likewise meant to project a sense of unity, continuity and stability. On the surface, it may have done that. But behind the scenes the old-timers appear to be doing as much to stoke the infighting as to cool it, as accounts here and here suggest.

If nothing else, their cameos offered a rare chance to see how they’ve been getting on. Mr Zhu stood out for his contrarian reluctance to dye his hair jet-black, as most Chinese politicians do. Mr Jiang looked surprisingly well, considering he suffered a serious health crisis early this year. Discreet sources are saying that he made an excellent recovery and even manages a vigorous swim most days. Thursday he managed to walk on his own, to and from his seat. Standing as other leaders entered the chamber, Mr Jiang cheerfully waved away Mr Hu’s suggestion that he take a seat.

Li Peng, best remembered as the hardline premier during the crackdown around Tiananmen Square in 1989, was seated next to Li Ruihuan, and together they seemed far more interested than anyone else in the text of Mr Hu’s speech. Most others followed the remarks as they were delivered (and took part in a traditional, simultaneous turning of pages, which always creates a wonderful swooshing sound in the Great Hall’s cavernous meeting space). But the Messrs Li flipped frontwards and backwards constantly through their copies, leaning down, poring over the text, and looking as if they might have been seeing it for the first time.

One of the targets of the CCP 18th Congress for the next ten years ( 2010-2020) is to double the national income for both people in urban and rural areas. I don't know which country on earth or which western democractic government has promised such a outcome for its citizens of the 'free world'.
Really hope that goal will be fulfilled.
Good luck, China! Good luck, Chinese people!

“Li Peng, best remembered as the hardline premier during the crackdown around Tiananmen Square in 1989”------ To the author of this article perhaps.

But to most Chinese, he is best remembered as the hardline premier and driver for 3 Gorges Dam.

I find this article unkind in wording and untrue in its speculation.

This article smells like it was to dutifully (editorially) depicting a foreign national event in negative terms but was unable to find “fatal” fault or flaw of the event. It is rather uneventful to read such an account as related by this article.

Instead, IMO, it's such a great show of unity and gratefulness of a nation by inviting the old and senior national leaders of the past decades to assemble in a hall for such a historical event, to commemorate, to remember and to look forward together.

And as such there is so much to write about and reporting to the Western readers for better east-west understanding, yet this article did not grasp the opportunity.

interesting to see japs calling other governments mafia. oh, your own government seems to happily coexist and cooperate with one of the most advanced mafia systems in the world, whats its name? yakuza or something like that?

The notion pout forward by Mr. Hu after he took office was aimed at rebalancing national economy to make it sustainable or make an all inclusive development possible. Simply put, China will not model itself after the US and the European countries either economically or politically. Economically, the scenario of development should carry as always some Chinese characteristics, namely, what can be gaining momentum should be in compliance with two driving forces, that is, the market “invisible hand” and government interferences as well. In this sense, China will never take the way as the US does in ushering in growth model with as less government interference as possible.. Neither will China copy the European countries like the UK and France to form its own social security systems or establish a famously generous welfare state.

Politically, China will never follow the footprint of the US to set up a country with two or multiparty taking turns in office, a country with a two-chamber system, a country with separation of the three powers, namely, legislative, administrative and judicative powers. Political reforms will be possible on condition that preliminary results are achieved in economic reforms in China. It’s now high time for CCP to carry out its political reforms to offer its people a more democratic society in which all walks of life can have their voices heard, and all social evils or corruptions are crackdown within the law frame. In short, political reforms can only be incremental instead of radical as CCP states it should be of continuity and stability.

One party rule doesn’t necessarily imply dictatorship whereas two-party rule is by no means a guarantee for democracy. Who govern a country depends on its history and its majority people rather than any other elements possible.
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Americans and people in Asia in particular should be aware of the tendency that the Japanese government is making a right turn when they feel frustrated in stirring up their gloomy economy. And it seems to them the best way to shore up is to rejuvenize militarism that once crowned Japan as the first class nation in the world.

What a sight, with dignitaries of the past, present and soon to be all present in the 18th ccp party congress, something you’d never see in America except during say, some presidential funerals where all living former presidents would attend together.

I think TE is over anxious on this. it’s actually a jolly good thing to have all chinese national leaders, present and have been, to gather under the same roof to hubbub and rub shoulders even if for nothing else. It sure beats the bloody purge routine of the old ussr era.

"The historical task set forth by the Communist Party of China for the present era is to lead the peasants and workers to develop Marxism with Chinese characteristics, One Mao Zedong Thought, Two-Cats-Theory by Xiaoping Deng, Three-Represents by Zemin Jiang, Four-Scientific-Methods by Jintao Hu, Five- Opening-Ups by Reform-Actor-Wen, Six Emancipations of the Mind by Jinping Xi (the seventh day is for Xmas).
The Party's ideological education and especially the education of princelings must not take place at reactionary Universities such as Harvard, Stanford or Oxford. Instead, lofty ideals and belief must take as the core content the education of the whole party in steadfastly and unflinchingly adhering to Marxism with Chinese characteristics.
Black Bo or White Wen, it doesn't really matter as long as the Great Chinese Leapfrog Forward (7% annual GDP growth is quite OK, no?) harmoniously carried out under the red banner of the Revoluting Spirit of the Hukuo-Proletariat harmoniously united and prospiring under the beneviolent goadance and coercive care of the CPC with a bit less Cultural Revolutionary Maoist characteristics (now that Bo and his red songs are purged) but with scientific opening-up and reform outlook emancipating the mind, moving boldly ahead where no country has gone before, come hell or high water, smog or sandstorms, tainted milk or bursting melons, falling bridges or crashing trains, handsome war-lords or dead British lovers, London flats or Singaporean banks, red songs or Harvard crimson, ...
I think Jinping is a lot more pro-West than his predecessors. He still has fond memories of the corn fields in Iowa! Besides, his first wife (Xiaoming Ke) is now living in UK probably (no?) and his sister An'an Xi (a.k.a. Qiaoqiao Qi?) lives in Canada, I believe, not to mention his daughter Mingze who is studying under a pseudonym at that reactionary University called Harvard (Kennedy School of Government?). China Agricultural University is a much better place than Harvard to learn about the Revolutionary Spirit of Lei Feng, foundered on a sightseeing boat on Nanhu lake. Perhaps both Guagua Bo and Mingze Xi should go back to China and follow the footsteps of their glorious grandfathers, the Great Chinese Revolutionaries, and not of their corrupt princeling fathers to help fulfill the dreams of the billions of poor peasants and workers in China. I don't know where Wen's daughter Ruchun went to school but diamonds (and jade) are forever:www.businessinsider.com/wen-jiabaos-wife-chinas-diamond-queen-2012-10

Folks, there are always "staged" events. President Obama's speeches and parties are likewise planned in advance - the difference is U.S. execution is just not always so sharp.

The Economist really should reconsider how they view China's leadership transition. In the corporate world this is called "Leadership Succession Planning" and a good thing but in nations it's somehow bad?

as an unexpected dividend for the usa of this 18th ccp party congress, some info about Japanese stockpile of weapon grade plutonium enough to produce thousands of a-bombs in short order (some japns rightwingers claimed to have them bombs fashioned in 183 days) resurfaced prominently in the news.

the geographically ‘tiny japan’ boasts a whopping 57 nuke reactors ostentatiously for electricity power generation (but they together generated less than a quarter of japns power) accumulated huge quantity of plutonium from spent fuel.

now that the us is beginning to be alarmed by such japanese scheming. with December-7 anniversary of pearl harbour surprise drawing close, we are seeing some subtle shift of american position tilting now against japanese new conservative on diaoyu islands crisis.

the peace loving world should not allow such reckless act to continue. these secret plutonium storage in japan should be taken out before they pose serious threat, just like Israel bombed out Libyan nuke reactor years ago before it had time to become operational.

Would the current japanese provocation on daioyu islands provides such an opportunity to take them all out if the us is sufficiently alarmed? it’s totally unacceptable to have this new japanese right wing militarism wielding nuke bombs to threaten the world.

sorry toch,
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I did not or have yet to read this post (too lengthy anyway).
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but it's enough that a disgruntled and disfranchised burmese refugee commenting on china is like a sick man telling the healthy what medicine to take.

I quote a reader from the Guardian, Nick Parsons Lucas, which puts some context on these ceaseless and conjectural criticism of China:

" Eh?

You've just witnessed the elites spending US$2bn on an effort to seal the American electorate slightly different brands of washing powder. One brand promises money for the masses, offering a softer bed for tougher times, the other promises money for the wealthy while threatening the masses with a whip. Neither are a solution, both know they won't deliver; the whole edifice is a charade. The country is a gazillion dollars in debt and the only thing they deliver on is blood and war for foreign countries and the promise of more to come.

I find it astonishing that anyone still buys the carnival of deceit that is western democracy; the eurozone is in meltdown and being run by unelected bureaucrats who demand elected Government hand them the keys to Nations' Treasuries, we have Italian premiers on trial, an ex British Prime Minister evading prosecution for war crimes by the skin of his teeth and raking in millions on the lecture circuit, French leaders in the dock for corruption....our banks rig the market and bet our economies on a whim, Greece is heading towards revolution...the list is endless....

Christ on a stick, China, for all its many faults, might actually be showing that an alternative is possible. From feudal backwater to rising superpower in a century?

The freedoms you think you see in the west are an illusion; bread and circuses for the masses who are kept down by being undermined, rather than oppressed. Let China continue the experiment; what we do here isn't working. Capitalism imploded with the banks and the elites expropriated billions from taxpayers to keep the rigged game going.

Let China continue its experiment. Look East, not to the corrupt and terminally declining West."

If there is one country that can set a target and meets it too, it is China. China had set a target to have so many thousand kilometres of high speed rail in so many years and it meets its target. China decided to promote the development of the central and western provinces so as to reduce the disparity between these provinces and the Eastern provinces and the Central and western provinces grow more rapidly than the eastern provinces. Even the region of Tibet is developing more rapidly than the eastern provinces.

@@@ To yasnaya
Now that you are a declared Chinese, you are capable of reading the following written in both English and Chinese.
One of the most significant characteristics of Chinese culture is comprehensiveness, which has been consolidated through generations of progress in history. By comprehensiveness, it’s meant to reveal one simple fact that Chinese people are dexterous in making the past to serve the present and adopting foreign things to Chinese needs. And thus inheritance and imitation make Chinese culture glrous and resplendent. Take Buddhism for example. Buddhism, which has been extinct in India, found its root in China, and Zen or the Chan sect appeared in China fueled by native culture. Chinese culture got advanced in process of infusion with alien mores in the Southern and Northern Dynasty (420-589), and far-off influences have been felt in the Middle Kingdom ever since. In the early 1900s, the establishments of the CCP and the KMT were the result of Chinese cultural infusion with the western ideological trend.
Menci, the most noted disciple of Confucius pointed out when asked the way to govern that people are on the top of priority, with state following, then comes the monarch. Don’t you think it to be closer to government of the people, by the people, for the people?
In Chapter 17 of his small book, Laotze wrote that ‘of the best rulers, the people only know thst they exist; the next best they love and praise; the next they fear; and the next they revile. ‘does it sound like the notion put forward by the American Republicans with little government interference as possible when it comes to the role of government in market economy?
Is there an expression identical to ‘plan’ in Chinese language? The answer is affirmative, and there were lots of interchangeable words in ancient Chinese characters. ‘Plan’ is an example.
计策；打算；办法。 元 无名氏 《符金锭》第二折：“我忙回住宅，自有箇计划，便着你花烛筵开会宾客。
” 亦作“ 谋划 ”。 1.谋略，打算。《后汉书•马援传》：“帝乃召 援 计事， 援 其言谋画。”《隋书•李景传》：“仪同三司 侯莫 陈乂 多谋画，工拒守之术。” 唐 柳宗元 《对贺者》：“夫为天子尚书郎，谋画无所陈，而羣比以为名，蒙耻遇僇，以待不测之诛。”
2. 筹谋策划。《后汉书•刘瑜传》：“ 竇武 欲大诛宦官，乃引 瑜 为侍中，又以侍中 尹勋 为尚书令，共同谋画。” 宋 周煇 《清波别志》卷上：“先是 贯 在北境，约 赵良嗣 归国，以副使印给凭，令边臣不得阻障。 良嗣 既至， 贯 引居清职，听其谋画。”
‘’’’Read up your 1930s history book on China, especially the part by the KMT.’’’’
Read up your 1930s history book on China, especially the part by the KMT, you will find out all bank robbers, gangsters, hooligans and ghosts of poverty joined in the CCP to defy their superiors and start a rebellion.